Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Robin Hood Jacket

For quite a while I've had this sweater in mind and was thrilled to pick up the pattern and knit it. So happy, that it only took me two weeks to roll it out. That is probably due to the small size, though! This is Pieter's winter sweater and it is already in use as autumn has arrived here in earnest. It was fun to use everything I had in my stash.

The yarn was a gift from my friend Mary Jane. It had been in her attic eaves for quite some time, so some of it had been moth eaten, which led to a bit of spit splicing here and there. This yarn, made of American and Russian wool, brought back memories of being in eight grade social studies class in the 80s and learning about glasnost and of the American businesses that were starting to work jointly with Soviet businesses. Peace Fleece is a perfect example of it. And how fun to use it for such a nice aran sweater. The beautiful wooden toggles were scored on one of my drives from Cambridge up to New Hampshire to visit my parents when we were living in Massachusetts. They are from the Fiber Studio in Henniker, NH.

Now, as far as the pattern, here are my notes:

-The gauge is completely off in this pattern. While it calls for bulky yarn and size 11 needles, I used aran weight yarn and size 8 needles. Quite a difference to get the same size garment in the end!
-Thanks to Ravelry, I saw lots of examples of sweaters using the four buttons and how it wasn't quite enough, so I added a fifth button to avoid bulging and it looks great.
-I made this a bit longer for a growing boy, just beyond the 14" for size 2/3T.
-I did a 3 needle bind off on shoulders for a cleaner edging and picked up the live back stitches for the hood. This did leave the neck loose, so when all was done, I put in two crochet chains inside neck to strengthen it, since I didn’t bind off the pieces. TechKnitting just put up a very informative post about this issue here. While they promote binding off and picking up stitches, I think I'd still do the same, as putting in a crochet chain/slip stitch was very easy and had a clean finish.
-I grafted the hood with the kitchener stitch and only knit it to 10”, which still is a bit too big.

WELCOME!

I'm Missy, mama to three little ones, knitter, naturalist, and lover of real food. Here I share the adventures our family as we try to live simply and joyfully in Puerto Rico. Photos credits to myself and my husband, Ben. Thanks for visiting!